Estates, Trusts & Probate

Attorneys for Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust Administration in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

We work with our clients to establish an estate plan that effectuates their goals. Whether your desire is to preserve wealth through appropriate tax planning or to devise a plan that communicates your wishes plainly and strategically in order to avoid future disputes, our attorneys stand ready to work to ensure that your wishes, preferences, and goals are known and respected.

Our Estate Planning and Administration Services

BBS&G provides comprehensive estate planning services for clients in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Regardless of your financial status or family circumstances, our attorneys can work with you to craft an estate plan that reflects your unique planning needs and desires. We also represent personal representatives, trustees, beneficiaries, and other interested parties in probate and trust administration. If you have recently lost a family member, we guide you through the process of winding up your family member’s final affairs.

Our estate planning process begins with a face-to-face meeting to understand your goals and objectives. We will sit down and get to know you personally so that we can offer advice and planning recommendations that are tailored to your personal circumstances. From transferring wealth to future generations to charitable giving, and from planning for your own incapacity to preserving government program eligibility for family members with special needs, we can build a plan that provides the certainty you demand, while also preserving the flexibility you desire. 

When we advise clients regarding the estate planning tools and strategies that are most appropriate for their individual circumstances, we consider tax planning, probate avoidance, and all other relevant factors. Depending upon your specific needs, some of the estate planning tools we may recommend include:

• Wills
• Revocable living trusts
• Life insurance trusts
• Special needs trusts
• Generation-skipping trusts
• QTIP and QDOT trusts
• Charitable trusts
• Private foundations
• Living wills
• Health care directives
• Durable powers of attorney

Probate is the court-supervised process of administering a person’s final affairs, and the extent of probate required is heavily dependent upon the structure and overall comprehensiveness of the decedent’s estate plan. If you are preparing to go through the probate process, our attorneys can provide you with a clear understanding of your rights or obligations and the options that you have available. We routinely assist clients with probate matters including:

• Fulfilling responsibilities as a personal representative
• Interpreting and enforcing the terms of a decedent’s will
• Challenging the enforceability of a decedent’s will
• Disputes and litigation regarding breach of personal representatives’ fiduciary duties
• Creditor claims and other issues
• Estate and trust administration

Our attorneys also represent clients in all other aspects of estate and trust administration. Our services include providing representation for trustees and beneficiaries in relation to the administration of revocable and irrevocable trusts, operating charitable foundations, and all other non-probate matters. While much of our representation in this area emphasizes executing the terms of the decedent’s estate plan and amicably resolving potential disputes among family members, we also have extensive experience in probate and estate litigation.